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This is a tough challenge, we know. Don't be worried about submitting imperfect games or even ones that do not run. This is just the start for us and we will work with anyone that wants to push their idea on further, after the game jam!

In short, anything that might run on a Raspberry Pi 2 is our baseline for what to aim for. It has OpenGLES (not OpenGL), so 3D should be okay. However, the teams behind Flash and Unity have not made versions for this architecture. While games written in these (and other) frameworks won't be able to run on the arcade machine as it stands, for the right game, we can try to find a suitable computer to put in there temporarily.

What we are most interested in, is helping people with good ideas. A game that is fun to play but can also tell us something interesting or unknown about illustrations or sound? That is a hard problem, and we want to support anyone trying to make something that might tackle this!

Diagonals do register as a combination of up or down with left or right. Consider it a four way joystick :)

As for assets, openly licenced ones are preferred, so if the licence says you can use it, then that is fine. Be careful with CC NC licenced material as it is very broadly defined and easy to unintentionally infringe. Best to ask author for those.

Raspberry Pi 2 - Quad core 700MHz by default, but can be overclocked if necessary

Running Raspian by default, but will run whatever flavour of OS needed for a game.

4:3 LCD screen, up to 1280x1024 screen resolution

It should have a wifi connection in most locations (however, as you might expect with wifi, it may not work all the time!)

Illuminated marquee

Stereo sound (Speakers above the screen)

Joystick - movement is mapped to the up,down, left, and right cursor keys

Two input buttons - also mapped to key presses, Left Ctrl and Left Alt by default, but can be changed if necessary.

Up to two auxiliary buttons - on the front of the cabinet, also mapped to key presses.

The purpose is to provide a large, installable unit that is tough and rugged, and that the general public can interact with. The joystick and two buttons are a constraint, intended to encourage more casual applications and use. Can a machine that looks like it has come from the 1980s, help with crowdsourcing applications? Are there any games that can both run with these constraints AND provide data about cultural collections?

From top to bottom: Raspberry Pi 2, Amplifier and Power source (5v and 12v)

The underside of the control panel and the bottom of the mounted LCD. Uses standard arcade controls (Happ brand in this case) and an I-PAC2 to map these onto keyboard presses for convenience.